Dive Brief:
- CMS is rolling out an initiative offering critical access hospitals in five states funds to participate in a three-year Medicare initiative called the Frontier Community Health Integration Project.
- The purpose of the program, which will be run in collaboration with the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy in the Health Resources and Services Administration, is to improve health outcomes and cut Medicare expenses in these states' rural counties through integrated and coordinated care models.
- Critical access hospitals in Alaska, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming have until May 5 to apply for participation in the program.
Dive Insight:
If you're going to test and develop collaborative care models, starting by supporting rural hospitals seems like a good idea. Such programs bring new resources into regions where healthcare support may be scarce, as well as testing the value of the models in environments not hampered by the competitive politics big metro hospitals engage in.